washing the engine

FiveO

Founding Member
Jan 28, 2001
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NJ
i want to wash my engine but i'm affraid of messing up anything electrical, is it pretty safe to do or should i stay away from that idea? i was thinking about spraying simple green on it and then hosing it down.
 
I take mine to the car wash. I take a couple wal-mart bags and cover my k&n conical filter and my distributor and spray it with castrol super clean wait a few mins and spray the crap out of it. Has worked for years for me.
 
is there anything that can a dirty motor looking at least kinda new??? I once bought this two bottle kit from kmart that was supposed to clean the engine out but that stuff hardly did anything. I valve covers are just crying to be shinny again.
 
The only problem I ever had was my TPS sensor died the day after washing my engine off once, may have just been time for the sensor to die and had nothing to do with washing the engine. Ever since then though I put a wal-mart sack over the dizzy and tear off a small piece of the bag and put it over the TPS sensor with a rubber band to hold it on. Never had any more problems I just soak it down with simple green and hose it off.
 
Bro, dont be afraid to hose down the engine, i can give you a step by step proccess that i have used many many times on many cars and has worked flawlessly. Recently did my friends 94 camry that was never washed, and was a complete mess, it came out shining like it was brand new outa the factory. here is what to do. it doesnt really matter if the car is cold, warm, or running. however i dont do it with the car running, i usually do it with the car a little warm.
1) get some plastic bags, and cover up the distributor, cover the fuse box, cover the battery, cover the alternator, and u could cover your MAF, or TPS. Some of these you dont HAVE to cover up, and many people dont, but i would rather be save, then sorry.
2) once the bags have been put in place, grab a hose, and lightly spray down the engine to get the stuff wet.
3)Next find a Degreaser, even a cheap one will work fine. Simple green is good, Greased lightning, or taht Orange degreaser (then it smells like oranges under the hood). now spray down the engine area liberally, dont be afraid to use alot, pay special attention to the very soiled area, or any areas where there is oil leaks (around valve covers, etc)
4) let this sit for a couple minutes, not too long, becuase if your doing this while the engine is still warm/hot then the stuff will start drying and that will do ya no good, you want the degreaser to agitate and loosen the grease and oil
5) Now, take the hose and start spraying down the engine, you can use a light firm spray, or a strong stream, just be carefull where your shooting the strong stream. what is great is one of those hose heads with the adjustable nozzles.
6) after you have sprayed down the engine and removed the degreaser, you can repeat from step 3 if its still very dirty, if not, then continue below.
7) Now remove the plastic bags that covered the vitals, you will see how much dirt is on these now, lol
8) now start your engine, and let it run to help dry the engine bay out.
9) now get a foaming tire spray and liberally spray down any black pieces, and by hand with a rag you can now go over the parts you had covered with the bags.
10) now go out and dont be afraid to pop that hood
 
FiveO said:
i want to wash my engine but i'm affraid of messing up anything electrical, is it pretty safe to do or should i stay away from that idea? i was thinking about spraying simple green on it and then hosing it down.


Simple Green works great, but be careful with it. Jet-Hot told me it would ruin their ceramic coating on my headers........